Magnificent. Stunning. Exceptional. No book is truly perfect but this one is as close to perfect as possible. What a follow up. I am so blown away by the prose, character depth, plot intricacies, and emotional pulls that I cannot put together any kind of analytical review. Every single character makes sense - their thoughts, goals, reasonings, actions. The plot never stops. The world building is too real for words.

Spoilers!!!!! 

My only grievance is Muntadhir. He is too scared to do anything, so he just acts out to act out. His actions are for his own benefit due to fear. The only time he acts for others is his lover or his sister. That’s it. He has other influence (besides Ghassan) to listen to, and instead acts out of fear and anger because he feels powerless to do anything else. Amongst a cast of characters who ACT, for better or for worse, his spineless temper tantrums made me greatly dislike him.